Would voters consider a Mormon candidate?

The Dallas Morning News

Published Friday, January 26, 2007

When Nevada Democrat Harry Reid took his seat this month as U.S. Senate majority leader, he became the highest-ranking federal elected official ever from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's all-but-official run for the Republican presidential nomination has also raised the profile of his church.

So does it matter to voters that they're Mormons? Maybe, the experts say.

Distinctively Mormon values could have policy implications on issues including abortion, welfare, gay marriage and the role of federal judges. In addition to Reid, four other senators and 10 U.S. House members identify themselves as Mormons.

The Mormon Church is generally against abortion, in favor of traditional families and supportive of patriotism. But the Latter-day Saints get to those positions using a different theology from that of other churches -- and those differences could affect the way Mormon politicians govern.

That's not to say that observant Mormons run in political lockstep any more than members of any other faith.

Reid, left of center, and Romney, increasingly right of center, both credit their church with setting their values.

"Without the direction of the church, I would have been without a compass," Reid wrote for a book published in 2001.

But even among themselves, Mormons can read their compasses differently. For instance, Mormons are taught to avoid coffee and tea. But Romney has a coffeepot for his staff, a spokesman said. Reid does not. Both men declined through spokesmen to answer questions from The Dallas Morning News about specific aspects of Mormon theology.

Reid's spokesman said the senator's church "teaches him values that cross party lines -- care for those in need, look out for our fellow man and do what is right."

Romney's spokesman said the former governor "is a person of strong faith, and his faith helps guide his values."

The LDS church is officially and emphatically not involved in partisan politics. But Reid and Romney are well aware of church teachings and how they could apply to public policy, said Ronald Scott, a Boston journalist working on a book about Romney.

"You have guys who have grown up thinking and talking like theologians," said Scott, a distant cousin of Romney's.

Reid has written that he grew up in Searchlight, a rowdy Nevada mining town with no church and "13 bordellos." He converted in college.